Catching the Lights
by Hopeless Hollyhock
Summary: Steampunk-ish/soul catching AU. Alfred F. Jones is another casualty from Antietam in the American Civil War when he is unexpectedly brought from purgatory by Arthur Kirkland. Somewhat confusing so let me know if it needs better explanation.


Snow fell softly from the grey, cloud-strewn sky, covering the trees and buildings in a cold white sheet. The buildings of the university held a medieval aura, their castle-like structures standing out in the tundra landscape of Alaska. Despite the advances of technology the university buildings had walls of granite bricks many gas lamps as well as electric light sources. These walls enclosed the main buildings, a place of discovery and exploration for the mind.

Arthur Kirkland trudged through the snow to an astrological observatory that the dean had allowed him to use for the purpose of his research involving the stars and the aurora borealis. The observatory towered over the rest of isolated university as the hooded figure ascended the twisted, iron staircase earnestly.

Upon reaching the main observatory platform, Arthur set to work and began preparing everything for the coming aurora borealis. He had been studying and experimenting for months and now he had high hopes towards what his hard labor would bring. Some believed that the aurora borealis, the northern lights, was the meeting place of lost souls. A congregation of those with unfinished business or who couldn't find their way to heaven. It was Arthur's hope that he could catch one of these souls and bring it back to the world that it had left.

He had everything prepared now and all the calculations were completed so if his hypothesis proved to be correct there was a chance that he could bring back the dead. With a new body of course. There was no way he would be able to determine what soul he retrieved from the night sky until he retrieved them.

A gust of frigid wind blew through the chamber as a young Japanese man entered the room and sealed the door to prevent the arctic weather from entering any further. Kiku Honda, the new arrival, hung up his winter coat neatly before moving about the room as he made any minor adjustments necessary to the bronze and brass hued mechanisms placed strategically throughout the allotted space.

"Wonderful to have you here Kiku." Arthur greeted as he went about his on adjustments to a particular machine that had the appearance of an old radio.

"Likewise Asa-kun." Kiku replied as he made the final adjustments and began organizing the necessary papers. "It would seem that we are close to confirming our studies."

"I can only hope. There's an infinite stream of possibilities should we succeed in this particular endeavor." Arthur said, his anticipation spreading into his speech and excited actions. He could only begin to imagine what a soul from beyond the veil that separates the living and the deceased could begin to tell them.

"Shall I open the dome?" Kiku asked, referring to the segmented, glass above them, providing an unrestricted view of the sunset lit sky above.

"Yes. We will have a clear view of the sky tonight which is perfect for our purposes." Arthur answered as he finished his adjustments.

Kiku nodded in agreement as he began using the proper ropes and levers to open the large dome to the frigid night air. Small flakes of snow being carried by the wind drifted into the circular room and among the various devices of dubious purpose as Arthur set to work on a metal and crystalline structure in the center of the room.

The device itself appeared to be made from bronze and steel with crystal bars protruding from certain areas of the machine. The bars appeared to be made of quartz with the purpose of directing some form of energy, which in turn would be gathered from the pointed crystal at the top of the mountain of machinery. It was this pointed crystal atop the mechanism that would be raised when the colors of the aurora began shimmering through the sky.

There was silence permeating through the arctic air, accompanied by an anticipation that made the two students feel as if they were teetering on the edge of a sheer cliff with their backs to the stone walls of the crags. There was no where to go but forward.

As the northern lights began flickering through the star-strewn sky, after an eternity of waiting with their nerves on edge, both Kiku and Arthur began preparing the radio-like apparatus and raised the center crystal toward the dancing colors above them. The crystal and the aurora resembled a lightning rod in a tempest as a cerulean energy went into the crystal and began flowing through the rods.

* * *

Darkness was familiar for Alfred. It was a constant in his life, or rather his death when he actually thought about it.

After everything melted into black and left him with feeling nothing but an isolated warmth he began to lose himself within the monotonous stream of time. It was similar to being on the edge of sleep for eternity, wrapped in warmth and having no desire to move but still consciously aware to the point of being able to feel the seconds and the hours and the days and the weeks and the months and the years and the centuries all bleed into each other. Each completely indistinguishable from the other as the flow continued.

However, Alfred felt a strange pull that jolted him from his ambiguous state on the edge of sleep and forced him into the moment. What the moment itself was, he was unsure but pull became more demanding as it drew and stretched him in unimaginable ways.

The darkness remained as always but he could feel the strange chill of being in a metal box. The foreign feelings prompted Alfred to speak for the first time in many centuries, "What's happening?"

The question reverberated through the space before disappearing completely as he tried to be one accustomed to the new experiences. The metal box felt colder than his former blanketed state and pushed into a harsh acceptance of the current reality.

"Can you hear me?" An accented voice called out from outside the box. The disembodied tones seemed to vibrate around him and through him.

"Yes. I can." Alfred replied as he became more accustomed to his incorporeal surroundings.

"Splendid." The voice said. "Can you tell me your name and how old you remember being?"

"My name is Alfred F. Jones." He responded cautiously. "I'm 19 years old."

"Alright. What was the last thing you remember before coming to wherever you were?"

"Choking on my own blood."

Arthur and Kiku were both a bit shocked by the response they received but nonetheless wrote it down. "Sorry." Arthur managed. He hadn't expected the soul to have such a violent death.

"Don't worry about it. I've been very aware of the fact that I'm dead for a long while now. Not even sure how long." Alfred replied through the radio device.

"How did you die?" Arthur asked as Kiku recorded all being said on a piece of paper.

"I was shot in the chest." Alfred responded, beginning to become aware of how acutely alone he was. Whoever these people were they had no reference to who he was or what he had gone through. The last time he had seen his own twin brother, his other half, was when he was drafted into the army. Six months later he just became another casualty in a brutal war. The loneliness was something that seeped icily into his core and festered.

"Why were you shot?" Arthur continued with his list of questions. He didn't want to bring back a vengeful spirit.

"Because it was war. Can we not talk about my death? It's not really a subject I enjoy."

"Sorry. I'm just trying to understand." The Brit explained.

"I grew up, went to university, got drafted, got shot. Same story as a lot of others probably."

"Would you mind telling me what war it was?"

"The war against the Confederacy."

"So the American Civil War in 1860?"

"That war was anything but civil." Alfred murmured to himself as the loneliness formed turned to a lump in the pit of his stomach. The way he talked about the Civil War was the same way his teachers had talked about the Revolutionary War. As history, something that had happened and was significant but was no longer a reality. "What year is it?"

"Right now it is 2212." Arthur answered.

"That long?" Alfred mumbled as the loneliness stabbed at him. If it was really that long ago that would mean that his brother was gone along with the rest of his family and everyone he had ever known. There was no way for him to know what the world was like now or what had happened in the years after his death.

"It's probably a lot for you to take in right now. Hopefully my partner and I can help you adjust."

"If I'm dead shouldn't I be somewhere else?" Alfred asked.

"That's the great, unanswered question. At least we'll now know without a doubt that souls exist thanks to you."

"I'm not sure how helpful I am..." There was something that felt undoubtedly wrong about the state he was in. A ceaseless tug at his core, trying to pull him back to his ambiguous sleeping state. "I don't think I should be here."

"Don't worry about it. Everything will be perfect. If you weren't supposed to be here than you wouldn't be." Arthur reassured. He wanted his subject to be as comfortable as possible and he doubted success if they had to try again. "It'll be a bit strange at first but I'm sure you'll be alright."

"I'll give it a try then." Alfred said despite his apprehensions. "What exactly is going to happen?"

"We're not completely sure but we won't let anything bad happen to you." Arthur promised.

"Okay. Thank you."

"Just relax. We'll find a way to make you more comfortable."

"Do you mean-" Kiku began before Arthur cut him off.

"I don't see why we can't try. It certainly wouldn't cause any harm." Arthur said with a devious glint in his eye.

Kiku nodded as he wrote down some final notes and began putting stuff away and close up the dome.

"Just rest for now Alfred. We'll find away to make you comfortable."

Alfred was once again in the ambiguous darkness as time flowed without sense or meaning. Lost to himself and everything around him in the numb vortex.

When the pulling and stretching sensation assaulted him once again, Alfred could feel himself being pulled in two separate directions. One pull beckoned him back to his eternal slumber while the other was foreign and strange. However, the tug towards an unknown future prevailed and Alfred was once again put in a strange, restricted location.

* * *

Alfred jolted upright with gasping breaths to find himself on a strange bed-like structure with a tube running into his arm. The shock of being alive almost gave him a heart attack that would have sent him back to his previous incorporeal state as he held out his hands in front of him and examined them. How could he possibly be back in his body? If what Arthur had told him was true then he would be nothing but bones at this point. However, the hands before him were very clearly his own.

It was exhilarating to be able to move his own limbs and to experience all the sensations of being alive. The chilled air filling his lungs as he took deep breaths, the sheet rubbing over his skin, his skin stretched taunt over his knuckles as his hands clenched the porous material of the cot.

Everything was jumbled in his mind as the overwhelming amount of stimulus assaulted him after the long periods of nothingness as his eyes absorbed the blurred colors around him. The blur remained even after he regained his breathing and began to quell the anxiety within him as a reminder of the horrible eyesight that he had been born with.

"Just relax." The accented voice of Arthur instructed as a comfortable blanket was placed over his shoulders. Alfred nodded in response, unsure of his ability to speak as the intensity of the light became bearable. "Good. Just breathe. I'll bring you something warm to drink. It's quite cold up here after all."

Another nod and Alfred could hear muffled footsteps as Arthur walked away. He had forgotten how bad his eyesight was after being suspended in limbo for so long and it was almost comfortable. Something familiar in this brand new world. He had seen trains when he was a kid with his brother but the booming industry that had spread from Europe and began taking over in the North as foreign as the place it had come from.

A warm ceramic cup was placed in his hand as Arthur returned and sat across from him. After a moment Alfred took a drink of the warm beverage to discover it was strikingly sweet as Arthur began to speak. "We were able to use some medical technology and segments of DNA to recreate your body. It was injured of course but we fixed that as well, as long as you don't mind scars."

The young soldier gave another nod, as if he could understand what was being said to him, while he continued to drink from the cup he had been given and look at the uneven outline of the person before him. "You're blind, aren't you?"

"I am." Alfred finally spoke, the words reverberating around his head as they were vocalized.

"We can get that fixed as well. Give you perfect eyesight."

"I'd rather wear glasses, if that's okay. I used to wear some."

"That's fine as well. You'll stand out a bit, but that shouldn't be a problem."

"So, why did you bring me back? What's the point is resurrecting someone from a completely different era?" The religious teaching his instructors had enforced always told him that after death there was a heaven or hell but now he wasn't sure. All he had seen was nothing for centuries. No light, no pearly gate, no eternal damnation.

"I'm a student at the university here doing research on the concept of a soul and religion. I wanted to see if it was possible to take a lost soul and return it to its body without the two rejecting each other. Although you proved successful I will not attempt it again without extensive research in case there are any after effects. There is also moral obligations to consider when it comes to raising the dead." Arthur explained effortlessly. "I'm hoping to help you adjust to the current way of life and then possibly have you speak to a committee of scientific researchers if that is alright with you of course."

"I'm not exactly sure. This is all strange." Alfred said as he sipped at the chocolate drink. It was a bit sweeter than he was used to but it was nice that some things remained after so much time.

"You don't have to make a decision immediately. We'll take things slow so you can adjust without any massive culture shock." Arthur assured. "Just go back to sleep and I'll begin your lessons tomorrow."

Alfred nodded in agreement as he realized how heavy his body felt with exhaustion. Everything seemed to fall away as colorful lights from the outside world faintly illuminated the room and he fell into a deep sleep.


End file.
